The Protocell Inc., in collaboration with the several major hospitals in Washington area proposes to develop the initial framework for human fetal tissue bank, which will collect the fetal tissues from lost pregnancies in second trimester(l 8-20 wks of gestation which coincides with the optimal stage of hematopoiesis), screen for possible contaminations, develop the best method of cryopreservation, store and distribute healthy tissues for therapeutic transplantation and research. In that, effective methods of collection of tissues, the quality assurance, handling and delivery of these tissues will be 'standardized. The most efficient methods of processing and retrieval of the maximum number of primitive stem cell populations from the fetal bone marrow will be developed. The phenotypic characteristics of the retrieved primitive stem cells will be determined by FACS analyses and their functional properties will be evaluated by clonogenic assays. The optimal cryopreservative cocktail with least cytotoxicity will be identified for cryopreservation of well characterized stem cells. The effect of temperature in freezing and thawing will be evaluated and standardized. The efficacy of longterm storage of cryopreserved stem cells will be examined during phase I and continued in phase II. The phenotypic and functional characteristics of the stored cells will be reevaluated. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Supply of well characterized preserved viable transplantable human fetal stem cells for the treatment of life threatening genetic diseases and gene targetting.